Internet text retrieval systems accept a statement of requested information in terms of a search query S made up of a plurality of keywords T1, T2, . . . Ti, . . . Tn and return a list of documents that match the search query. The need to perform such searches on internet databases has resulted in development of search engines that provide a query interface to the information containing sources and return search results ranked sequentially on how well the listed documents match the search query. However, the various search engines process search interrogations in different ways and as a result the same query will result in different results from the different search engines. Further, with the expansion of the world wide web, databases and search engines available for search have multiplied to the extent that the amount of data available to users has increased dramatically. In addition, the information requested by the searcher can be printed, audio, and/or visual data. This data can be in both analog and digital form, and in a number of different formats, and in multiple machine and natural languages. The type of data and its form, format, and languages may not be what is required or even understood by the searcher, and the results can be incomplete, incomprehensible, imprecise, and varying.
Because of the above and other considerations, it is difficult to obtain complete, understandable and accurate results from searches for information from all relative sources. Moreover, the information processing resources and man hours necessary to perform such searching can be expensive. What is needed to overcome information overload in a distributed information system is an automated system and method of information retrieval which optimally selects sources or databases of all types that are most likely to provide the best response to a search and tailors the received responses to needs of the searcher.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved query routing system.
It is further an object of the present invention to provide a query routing system capable of accessing information in numerous forms, formats and languages and capable of providing the information to searchers in other types, formats and languages.